Bird's eye view

I didn't know until today that Google Maps now also shows other regions of the world via their Satellite link. So one can visit Google Maps, click on "Satellite" (top-right) and search for a location of choice (not sure how much they have mapped).

Looked at Pune and then Bombay - was quite fascinating to see the shapes despite knowing how they look. Take a peek. If you see a small dot blinking, who knows, it might be me waving ;-)

Link thanks to Vinod

Tech-scepticism

If you're working in a technical area and have participated in the writing/design of software or hardware, would you be more likely or less to be evangelistic about the whole march of application technology? I sometimes find myself becoming sceptical when I see what we occasionally have to do to get products working and how even the most impressive products have invisible assumptions and quiet bugs lurking about. Users and the marketing depts. seem to have more faith in things (how those things ever work most of the times despite all that testing, god only knows!) than the people who actually put the nuts-and-bolts in. As the jokes go, it is hard to imagine IT guys making the equivalent of bridges and buildings - not much use saying "let me see if I can reproduce the bug here" when it collapses, is there?

Stuff like the network infrastructure and protocols have worked so well for so long and have become invisible to us, so the same'll hopefully happen for the application layer in the future.

?? ???

Baraha means "writing" in Kannada - so says a help page on "Baraha", a software that helps create words in Indian scripts for use in applications. It converts to a variety of formats, most important Unicode and utf8, which help in publishing to web pages. The good thing is that you can write in plain English and see it being converted to the script using easy (and fast becoming standard) transliteration rules. Right now, it supports Devanaagari, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam.

A note of thanks to ?????, ???? and ????, whose blogs (and in the latter case, emails), featured the use of the software.

I'm going to try and write the odd words in posts in a more appropriate native script to see how it goes. I've realised though that I am not very sure about a lot of my spellings in Hindi/Marathi (and even Tamil, if I attempt it), so the typos on this blog are going to head off in search of the clouds - preemptive apologies.

[P.S.: I think Firefox incorrectly renders the maatraas, so if you're seeing it with the "Nikhil" above, I'm afraid, can't help it. If anyone knows what the problem is...]

Power trip - 2

After gushing a bit about the expectations of ??????, I'm pleased that the week of reckoning is nigh. Advance booking notices are already out and I'm happy to deduce from the show timings that the film is not greater than 2 hours (unless I have goofed up in assuming that the timings are for shows at the same screen). This probably means a diversion-free film. Let's see.

The possible place I land up for any viewing of the film will be the E-Square multiplex. Now last time I went there, fellow-viewers Sandeep and Sujay were found carping (rightly) about the sudden hike in parking prices, Rs. 10 for two-wheelers and Rs. 30 for cars, a rise of 100% and 50% respectively. The multiplexes in Pune have started guzzling money; their ticket prices seemed irrationally priced and now their parking fares join in.They also get a huge tax incentive, but are they passing it on to the customers?

Daemon notes that yet another multiplex (Pune's 5th) is coming up in Aundh. Whether the competitive effect will drive down prices or whether they'll just join the party, we'll have to wait. They'll eat into E^2 profits no doubt, for there must be some saturation in the market by now. Till then, we're left to cursing the big E.

ODI Substitutions

With the ICC implementing the new suggestions by their Technical committee, changes to the playing conditions start from end of July. Prominent among these is the allowance for a substitute in any capacity, with all 12 players receiving a full cap.

Just thinking about it a bit, it seems to me that most teams will make the substitution at the mid-innings break. They will go in for having 6 or 7 batsmen, and a full chart of 5 or 6 bowlers. It could also take the pressure off the Gilchristian dilemma of finding a batsman-wicketkeeper (though your weakest batsman is likely to be a full-time bowler).

I'm not very sure what the rule brings to the game other than giving weaker teams or those with less flexible players more cover. In contrast, the other major ruling about making 20 overs of restricted fielding with 10 of them being used in 2 blocks in the rest of the 40 overs should be interesting. If only to see how captains and coaches use this to their advantage. The introduction of the 15 over rule all those years ago shook up things and I think we may see things of interest happening. Until someone stumbles upon a very useful strategy that gets copied and ultimately turns stereotypical, this should have something for the viewer. South Africa had better watch out - more complex rules means more opportunities to make more cock-ups :-).

I still think my suggestion (made long ago) about letting some bowlers bowl more than 10 overs is a useful one which will further help tilt the balance away a little further from the batsmen. Alas, if only they listened :-).

Disporting pages

These days, there's no point in turning to the last pages of the daily Times of India first thing in the day's newsgathering, for those 3 pages at the back have deteriorated so badly that it sometimes threatens the place of the Pune Times of India at the bottom rung.

The typical layout of the sports pages these days are: one large photograph, preferably of female sportsperson in "inviting" clothing, three or four news articles printed with permission from foreign newspapers or from news agencies, a couple of useless insets about some past English or Aussie cricketer talking about the Ashes, or some "proactive" reporting about whether every municipal ground in India is willing to hold a Twenty20 match. There has been the odd useful news report, such as about the recent efforts of the Maharashtra Cricket Association to give their Ranji team a boost, but on the whole, some hapless trees being sacrificed.

Gaurav pointed out that this was a direct fallout of people like Ayaz Memon leaving for fresh pastures in the warzone of Mumbai. Still, I'm appalled it got so dismal.

BCL - rant deux

If any of you recall my ?????-filled post on the British Library (a.k.a the issue of the Sandman book), I actually took it up with them (mainly after reading Sudarshan's comment). I got a reply telling me that the book was available for Juniors and a catch-all Classic membership and not for the normal Senior member. The problem with this reply was that it told me something I already knew and made no reference to the fundamental point, i.e. the incorrect categorisation. So I wrote another (longer) mail throwing all the wattage of light I could on the matter. By now a little more impassioned, I ended my mail by saying that "you might as well make Lolita available too".

Well, the line went dead from that point onwards and I haven't heard from them in more than a week. Whether "the matter is under consideration" or if I have been classified into the file of "pesky persons" and mail redirected to trash, I don't know. Anyway, I shouldn't be blamed for not thinking too much of their PR.

End trivial rant. Grrr.

Fledgling steps

We've heard about the great (and inconsistent) exploits of the first generations of Indian cricket, from the bowling of Md. Nissar and Amar Singh, the first centuries home and away of the Lala and the recently departed Mushtaq Ali, and then the all-round deeds of Vinoo Mankad. But not until recently did we have a chance to sense what all that must have been like. That has come while watching the little triumphs of the Bangladeshis.

It must be exhilarating when everyone suddenly wakes up to your existence while hitherto dismissing you as nothing more than a optional side-dish. To hail one of your batsman as being exceptionally talented and entertaining too. To expect more and follow their progress with optimism.

Not to say that everyone takes a romantic view of Bangladeshi cricket and should gloss over the gaping holes in the team buildup - lack of good fast/medium pacers, opening batsman and backbone in the batting order. Issues that another subcontinental team also faced from its inception but managed to overcome bit by bit.

Back to School

I'll be heading over to the Kanwal Rekhi School of IT at IIT Powai this July end to start an MTech. As we have been constantly reminded before and during the process, the admission is still "provisional" until a registration process where I have to furnish sundry pieces of paper proving my graduation et al. So unless I am embroiled in some glorious snafu, I should be safely ensconced in the vicinity of the Powai lake in a month's time.

Finding a post graduate programme of my choice and interest (also one that would have me for no one was going to beg me to sign up, a la Shevchenko) took a lot of time. In fact, I'd say it's quite unusual (atleast in the circles I know) to go off so late after graduation, but that's how it turned out eventually. For some inexplicable reason, I was never too keen on find something overseas. For that matter, am not completely certain why I want to do a post graduate course - is it just peer imitation or the done thing or an escape route in needing a change from work? Not sure, but atleast I have a chance to find out in the place I wanted to.

What will be certain is that I'll be one of the oldest people in the course! A slightly new feeling that'll be, for even at work, until six months ago, I was usually one of the youngest members of all the groups I belonged to. A fact that I liked reminding others in my group :-). Anyway, better Clarie Grimett than no Test cap at all.

What I'm also looking forward to is to have a more physically active life compared to the last few years of chair-sagging sloth, a chance to pick up cycling again (if I can get the legs to pump that is), learn something worthwhile & formally from qualified people for the first time in a long while, live away from home (another first) and on my own, away from cloistered protection. From what I've seen and heard, KReSIT has good facilities to offer, so hopefully, there'll be much to gain. Perhaps I will even figure out whether this is the thing for me.

After having drawn a blank in the past (and tantalisingly so), I'd wondered if this was the thing for me. I still do. This development does put into the shade my rather ambitious Plan B of taking 6 months off from work next year and doing a whole lot of "other" things - such as learning a language, perhaps a musical instrument, writing more - stuff from some dreamy TODO list. Despite all the education, money earned, so called maturity, I don't know if I'd have had the guts to go through with that. I have never personally done anything that big in terms of bucking the trend. Despite promising to try and not follow "trends", apart from a couple of diversions, I'd have to say, I've been rather conformist. Now I won't know if I'd have been able to go through with it. Still, the very idea that I'm going to be chucking 2 years worth of salary has had a few people wondering.

I'm slightly amused at the whole "school" thing; indeed, their FAQ mentions it's called a school mainly because they don't offer any undergraduate studies. I still don't understand why only a college should offer undergrad studies, but I suspect it's more to do with carving out a separate identity. The E&TC Dept. at COEP during the Jog Regime was often called the "shaaLaa", and we from the then orphaned Comp. dept who were reluctantly being housed by the E&TC dept. were also slightly tainted by it, so school for me conjures up pejorative thoughts of uniforms, attendance and rules.

Well, I had better stop carping and gear up to offer my loyalties at my new school. The best thoughts have come from the realisation that despite how much work there will be, I will eventually have vacations once again.

Batman Begins

One more tick for me under the category of "which Christopher Nolan films have I seen?". It looks like his entry into mainstream Hollywood is complete, which on one hand proves to him that he can span the gamut of "indie" to "pop", but gives those of us who looked at him as a posterboy for novelty some anxious moments.

Not that the film is bad. It is more than competently made and in keeping with the recent trend in probing the inner works of "the men who keep the world safe", a plausible exploration of Bat-origins. The trouble is that there is only so far anyone can go with the plot, and Nolan does hit the horizons easily. I'm used to not knowing how a Nolan film will end, but with such films, there is no doubting the outcome. A few well-shot sequences, a baleful (pun intended) mortal-turned-hero, cliffhanger moments and a cool sequel hint later, Batman Begins joins a list of films you'd do well to watch once, but not necessarily in the theatres. My agnosticism here is probably explained by the fact that I haven't seen any of the earlier Batman films; many of the people who loved this film do so on the rebound from some of the disasters of the past.

The film seemed a little differently shot, with claustrophobic close-ups, especially during the action sequences, but the usual dearth of light is trademark Batman. I liked the idea of the Scarecrow and his "weapon" of choice - fitted in well with the travails of Bruce Wayne.

Unbreakable, Spiderman, Batman Begins later, will we finally see a film on the musings of Captain Self-Doubt?

Two useful reviews

* Samanth's review
* Ebert's view

The Biggest Upset

It's been a long while since I've had so much fun watching a cricket match. The main reason why I watched the Australia-Bangladesh match on Saturday was to see how (and not if) Australia pick themselves up after a horrendous start to the season (and that's "Batman Begins" speaking as well!).

I have no doubt that this was the greatest upset in ODI history. The three others that come close were the Zimbabwe-Australia match in the 1983 World Cup (where one can argue that no one knew what to make of the debutants and the Aussies were slipping into their worst patch in the last 25 years), the Kenya-West Indies WC match at Pune in 1996 and the Bangladesh-Pakistan WC match in 1999 (which of course had eyebrows hitting the ceiling). This one was a run chase and as one look at the Top 10 list on Cricinfo will show, the only one among the historic topplers.

It could have been an even better weekend had ESPN not replaced the Eng-Aus match to show Confederations Cup action, so I wasn't able to catch Pietersen's innings (dunno if they switched back later, but I had retired for the day in dismay). The Australians find themselves skidding all over the place, but of course, they can't be written off yet - cast your mind back to the Texaco Trophy in 1997 (IIRC, a 3-0 whitewash) and more famously, the 1999 World Cup which started in somewhat similar fashion.

Award optimisations

I didn't know until the rolling headlines on news channels told me that there had been one more "Bollywood Awards Nite" where the same people got the same awards. Ever since other film magazines and organisations realised that it didn't take much to print posters, create statuettes in semi-objectionable postures and call themselves the only credible prizes in the land, Filmfare's monopoly on the matter was challenged. So now we can't tell apart any of them. So in the interest of screen time and money, I propose a single award show. You get the filmi types together and go: right, Rani: you get the Screen, IIFA and Filmfare for Best Actress. But you don't get the Cineblitz one, it goes to Preity Zinta. Shah Rukh: you get all awards for any one of your movies, and we promise that any unannounced ones for this year will go to you retrospectively.

Of course, the other problem with our awards system is that of socialistic political correctness, which is essentially the issue of making sure every star gets an award each year so that they continue giving interviews in the future. What must be happening is this: the organisers have a list of stars and the names get checked one by one. When you know however you try swinging it that Kareena Kapoor isn't going to win any (for having played a streetwalker badly), you give her a special award for having played a streetwalker "differently". It doesn't matter what the award is called, that's what creativity is all about. Of course, you have to make sure someone from the each of the five families gets an award. The families are the Kapoors, the Bachchans, the its-all-about-loving-your-Johars-and-Chopras and the Limited Supermodels Society of India. The fifth one, keeping in with democracy, is an open slot - sometimes it is the Roshans, sometimes the Khan-Shetty-Dutt-Kumar combine.

By the way

While the Indian political theatre mainly featured a farcical comedy last week, two other interesting developments passed by almost unnoticed. In what was a true example of the word "reinvention" (a word that has been used so frequently this week), the BSP made a major leap with their Brahman Sammelan. No one will make her explain this properly, but Mayawati shows herself to be a player playing a pure game of politics unencumbered by the circumspection of deep ideology.

Then there was also the re-entry of P.A.Sangma into the NCP, with which was complete the whittling away of the founding principles (if you can call it that) of the NCP. Looks like the former speaker (formerly "respected" also) found it too hard to stay out on his own.

Probably the most humorous thing I heard last week about l'affaire Advani was the NDTV "ground report" that had to be interrupted because crackers were going off at his house when all had been sorted out (couldn't Ms. Dutt do her report from elsewhere?) and that Mr. Advani cut a cake in the presence of his family members to celebrate. I wonder what they all sang.

It's all nice for the Congress to be pleased at punch, but all this just proves that these things go about in circles. If the BJP wears the red nose today, not long ago, it was the Congress under the dunce cap.

Aubrey Upjohn in the literary flesh

I'm into the thick of the 4th of the Jeeves Omnibus and beginning Jeeves in the Offing, I realise that we're finally being introduced to Aubrey Upjohn of whose educational establishment, there have been umpteen references by Bertie W.. The name crops up usually as a nostalgic precursor to Bertie creeping up into someone's room to pinch something, for the story of how he crept in the passage to the office of that formidable man's study at Malvern House, Bramley-on-Sea to sneak some biscuits when to his eternal horror, it was occupied by the man himself tucking into them with gusto.

More dirt is revealed about the man who doled out "six of the juciest from a cane of the type that biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder" such as the fact that he had a bare, wide upper lip that twitched scarily and that he couldn't make his speeches without referring to his notes instead of memorising them, a crime in Wooster-world.

Can't wait for him to get in the neck thanks to Jeeves :-)

You are kidding

Yesterday at the local British Library, I chanced upon a Sandman novel by Neil Gaiman. I have never read one and had heard about it from Sudarshan, so I picked it up. At the issue counter, however, I was informed that it was a "junior member" book and being on a Senior Membership, I couldn't borrow it.

The British Library here have always done very silly things like this. For instance, common sense would dictate that no terrorist outfit worth its ammo would bother to attack a library in Pune - yet they continue have a couple of pretty useless bomb detectors. Coming back to the point in question, they have separate memberships for Junior, Senior and Family categories (the last one includes both and hence is costlier). The sensible thing to do would be to grade memberships in terms of the number of items (books, CDs, DVDs) you're allowed to borrow. For who is going to decide what is a children's book and what's adult? Why shouldn't I be allowed to read Noddy and why not let a kid discover P.G.Wodehouse?

In the Sandman instance, from what I saw while glancing through the contents, the novel was quite "graphic" and anyone who classifies it as children's lit just based on the fact that it is visually-oriented is nuts. They should show them some of the Manga from Japan. Eventually some "junior" member is going to borrow that book and receive quite an education. Until his/her parents get it, for they're going to have a fit.

Power trip

Extended trailers of the next big Ram Gopal Varma film Sarkaar have appeared on air. The Factory always has approached film promotion in interesting ways. So while on one hand RGV invokes The Godfather with any talk about this film, the stills and trailers of Sarkaar show more than a passing visual reference to Bal Thackeray and family. Which is great for building interest and expectations.

The long trailer that's doing the rounds of music channels is designed to enumerate the cast. So while we're waiting, it's good fun to pair them off against The Godfather. The little B is obviously Michael, and has (surprise #1) Katrina Kaif as company as Kay. The talented Kay Kay (unintentional coincidence with Diane K's Adams of course!) steps into RGV world as Sonny. I don't know who new-Factory-staple Rukhsar is paired up against. Or is she the Smita T reference? Supriya Pathak is a lot more believable as Mrs. Sarkaar than the likes of Shefali nee-Shetty/ex-Chaayaa/now-Shah opp. the Big B. (surprise #2 is) Tanisha seems to be Connie. So RGV sees something worth exploiting in the surprises. Let's see. Good to see the guy who shone as the MLA Velankar (not S. Amrapurkar of course) in Ab Tak Chappan. Fringe characters repeating in larger roles subsequently is of course a RGV trademark.

Amitabh Bachchan gets a separate paragraph to himself, for subtly changing over to a more aggressive and how-do-we-say-it taamasik character. Despite the cliché, he looks different. Will he be bumped off in the middle of the film? I think not.

No full-blown songs shown yet, just a snatch of a theme that goes Govinda Govinda. More points to the RGV marksheet if he's had the guts to not spill songs about. (Though the inev. item song may surface soon).

We will of course soon find out what Sarkaar is all about. RGV has to hardly market the film with such a cast, but I've already jumped into the hype-machine. Can't help it - the mouth waters so much.

Ashes to Ashes, Dutch to Dutch

If Aishwarya "Ash" Rai gets a tulip named after her, what does the actress Tulip Joshi do? Perhaps sponsor a monograph on ashes a la Sherlock Holmes?

Film trivia

* Bobby Deol stars in a new film called Barsaat, the second time he does so in a film by that title. Any idea if there exist other such instances of the same person in more than 1 film by the same name?

* Just realised that Mani Ratnam has made films set in all four Indian metros. Mouna Ragam - Delhi, Bombay - Bombay, Yuva - Calcutta and take-your-pick for Madras. Any other instances of an Indian filmmaker doing so?

Group-phobe

Some days ago, I saw an email on some egroups announcing a new organisation for "young people". I don't remember who is behind it or what the exact aims are, but apparently the purpose was to rally educated young people into "making a difference" in Indian society.

The problem is that for some reason, I'm always skeptical (sometimes even suspicious) of any large organised formation. This despite never being a member of any proper organised group - the local Mensa chapter that I'm a member of doesn't really have any activities that cause people to gather together. The big club in my life is the BC Quiz Club which is a loose aggregation without any formal framework - just the way I prefer it. IMHO, one reason for it lasting 15 years has been the lack of any material profit to be made from exploiting it.

Will any large group be prone to being doomed or be hijacked by a small clique? If so, then unless I'm likely to be part of the ruling cabal, I shouldn't venture in :-) But since it's easier to lobby collectively, I'm going to be ineffective as a lone ranger. Still don't know what's the seed for my innate distrust for large organisation.

The Period and the commerical domain

I finished reading a book called Dot.Con - The Greatest Story Ever Sold by John Cassidy. It analyses the crazy period from 1995 to just before the 9-11 attacks and attempts to answer the retrospective question: What was everyone thinking?

Cassidy wades through the mass of numbers (that causes people like me to see white haze) and the alphabet of the stockmarket to explain how almost everyone in the US seemed to be pouring money into ventures that were valued higher than the giants of industry and yet seemed to have nothing more than a webserver, a plan to sell items ranging from pet food to canned fruit but with a colossal talent for burning money at astronomical rates. The reasons were some sort of self (and peer inflicted) mass hypnosis causing a breakdown of judgement, a massive feedback loop and a misguided belief that the "paradigms" had really changed this time.

He quotes Alan Greenspan as saying that no one can really tell it's a bubble until afterwards. I can see the sense in that. Fads are such that it is tough to keep convincing yourself what reality must be, especially if everyone else seems to believe in it. And especially if they are making astounding pots of money. It didn't help that the big financial guys, the journalists and other "objective" monitors were too involved to have been relied. The skeptics were being silenced as party-poopers and no one wanted to listen to them. Actually, they couldn't be heard for the music was so loud.

It takes a brave man to step aside and stick to his beliefs - for the longer he seems wrong, the more inclined he is to throw the towel and join the rest. What if it was really true this time? What if the dotcoms had found a business model that would yield money in the future for your if only you threw in your weight with them? Quite tough.

The fact that I lasted the book and actually understood some of the points could be taken as a positive plug for the book for anyone interested in those times. The dotcom crash coincided with many of us taking up our first jobs and we never had any firsthand idea of how rosy things must have seemed before that. Now that things are much better, probably it's a good lesson to know. For some reason, I've heard a lot of people already start to speak of the next "crash". I don't know if they're being realistic or just being pessimistic from their experience of 4 years ago.

Incidentally, here's a post on the same topic from Amit's blog

Napunsakalinguistics

Many, many days ago, I said to someone that someday I'd like to learn (properly) the Sanskrit and Urdu languages. The reaction surprised me. That person said "why would you learn Urdu?". And indicated that it wasn't what this person considered "ours", and not something that people like "us" be interested in.

I don't want to approach this topic by attaching any "-isms" to it, but however I see, it's hard to call it anything but jingoism. I was aware of the person's political leanings, but the reaction still took me by surprise. I didn't understand how language entered into political ideology at the personal level. What would cause a person to be repulsed by a language, or even think it to be "tainted"? I didn't think Urdu was forced down the populace in the same way English was pushed in Ireland (and to disastrous consequences for the Celtic culture). Is it considered the "language of the oppressors" or "the language of the opponents"? I can't explain the reaction for a member of my generation with a profile similar to mine.

So is the only -ism that applies here to be preceded by the word "jingo"? Anyone who has seen Hindi films over a period of time would have imbibed a fair amount of that mellifluous language unconsciously, right? I'm no linguist and I can't always explain my tabassums and my tarannums, but I don't see why anyone shouldn't feel an affection for the finely nuanced and poetic thoughts that emanate from it. How can anyone wish that away?

From my limited experience, we don't have a great deal of respect for our linguistic advantages and prefer to label & file them away into convenient drawers. This is a fallacious generalisation, but as a thumb rule, I've always thought anyone who knows 2 or more Indian languages is likely to be more "tolerant", or at least have a less narrow understanding of their surroundings. If you could understand Pu La or Tagore or Bharatiyar or Ghalib, wouldn't you stop thinking only your kind has to be the finest?

Sahadeva Uvaacha

The Sunday Magazine section of The Hindu has a interesting new series of extracts from what is supposed to be "a novel in progress." by Kesava Menon. It's a version of the Mahabharata narrated by Sahadeva ,"the youngest and perhaps the most insignificant of the Pandavas" and is set at the beginning of the 13th year of exile, the "incognito" phase.

Apart from being a revision of the fascinating epic, it is not the usual "PG" rated fare, but a little more adult with an attempt towards "realism". Sahadeva gets bumped up the importance scale which provides us a fresh new viewpoint.

The series is just two episodes old. They are (for the benefit of all those like me who don't buy a print copy) My Game and Blending In.

Staring at the glare

If you, like Daemon and me, have been puzzled by what's under Shivnarine Chanderpaul's eyes when he comes out to bat, then pay a visit to Mueller Sports Medicine's anti-glare strips.